The time is nigh and Ghana is in a state of perpetual flux. Ghana plays Brazil for the third time in this comeptition’s history and both teams have an agenda. I’ve done a lot on Ghana during the course of the games, so we’ll do the Selecao instead.

Brazil
They have been called Egypt 2009’s most complete side and it is quite understandable. Brazil have scored 14 goals in 6 games, only superceded by Spain and the team they face later today -Ghana. While others may have scored more, these guys have played a brand of football is not strange to those who know anything about the ‘joga bonito’

Their record in this comepetition is well known (won 4 times and appeared severally) but I want to concentrate on coach Rogerio Laurenco (pictured).

The 37-year-old may not be the most experienced of coaches but he has shown he’s the perfect man for the job. The former defender was a player himself not that long ago and when he hung up his boots in 2001 at just 30 years of age, he went straight to coaching, starting off in the youth divisions of his old playing club, Flamengo.

It’s worth noting that he has the record for the most goals scored by a defender in Flamengo’s history.

Today, part of his job description includes helping Brazil’s national senior team coach, Dunga while also taking charge of the country’s under-aged teams. Lourenco said:

“Of course there is pressure to win. Anyone who coaches in Brazil knows this.”

Brazil’s coach hopes that “facing another attacking team, like Brazil, means that the football will be better to watch” considering the two teams have scored 30 goals between them.

At this tournament the guy has whipped his team into an attacking machine spearheaded by Alex Teixeira and Alan Kardec. The captain, Giulano, also has that hold on his peers that natural captains seem to possess. In the line-up is Douglas Costa – the man who was among the most-feared before the tournament started on September 24.

Yet, he has been largely benched and has played only 3 matches and scored once. Why the coach has done that is beyond me but he’s the gaffer. Here’s how they beat Costa Rica in the semis.

What to expect

Ghana and Brazil have been here before in 1993. In that final in Sydney, Ghana took a 1-0 lead after a quarter of an hour, but Brazil equalized five minutes after the restart and sealed what was their third title with the winning strike two minutes before the end of normal time.

So, Senor Lourenco would be looking to do it again.

His team’s 14 goals have been scored from all sides of the fields by different players, unlike Ghana who have had half of theirs’ by Dominic Adiyiah. That means the Satellites must be wary of anybody in yellow and green.

Out of their sixteen, 11 of Ghana’s goals have come on the other side of halftime, and both Brazil and Ghana have come from behind to win twice, so don’t count out either if they start slowly.

Referee: Frank de Bleeckere, Belgium

This is how Ghana beat Hungary in the semis.

Game on!

Yet, that is what happened. The Asians went ahead through their skipper before the typical poacher’s strike came from Ransford Osei’s foot. And then the hope was back. Ghana played like demons were after them, steadily threading passes together and putting things in order.

The pressure paid off and Dominic Adiyiah did the trick. But there are questions about the Satellites spirit against more formidable opponents. Can they afford such laxity against England? I doubt.

Adiyiah was quite suspect and with the exception of his goal, he was not too good for me. As for captain Dede Ayew, a sterner referee may not have been too lenient with the way he kept falling so easily (and sometimes so theatrically.)

After this narrow win, some are calling for Gladson Awako to replace Opoku Agyemang.

Well, maybe Sellas would know what to tell them before the next game with England on the 29th (Tuesday)

I keep asking if the team have gelled enough. Do you think they have?

And he did it with his team of Black Stars at the Ohene Djan Stadium. the atmosphere was nothing short of electric and the boys cruised to victory with a minimum of fuss.

Work done. 2010 is at the corner. Yawn.

Yet I had the distinct feeling that the mood in the country was one of simple joy not wild ecstasy like it was the first time Ghana qualified for Germany. Well, maybe the people here are getting used to being World Cuppers. Sheesh.

See the highlights of the game then:

Well done to the Black Stars and with that they become the 8th country (overall) to get tickets to SA and the first in Africa.

More were expected by late evening and this morning too. Those in included big boys – captain Stephen Appiah and his deputy John Mensah.

Appiah arrived from his Italy base while John Mensah arrived from England. He has completed his switch to Sunderland from Olympique Lyonnnais. Goalkeeper George Owu and Asamoah Gyan are also around. Asamoah scored at the weekend for Rennes.

Also expected from around the world are John Pantsil, Matthew Amoah, Eric Addo, Haminu Dramani, Samuel lnkoom, Opoku Agyemang. As for Michael Essien, Anthony Annan and Richard Kingson, they will be expected to be in Tuesday night.

Ghana lead Group Four of the World Cup qualifiers with all nine points. Ghana will surely qualify for the World Cup if they beat Sudan and Mali hold Benin in Coutonou.

The 28-year-old was making his league return after suffering an ankle injury that kept him out of action for three weeks.

Amoah grabbed the second goal as he marked his return to the league from injury with a second-half goal in NAC Breda’s 2-0 over rivals Heerenveen in the Dutch top-flight.

But maybe Fulham’s Painstil would be playing in the Ghana – Sudan game with a horrible own goal on the back of his mind. The goal contributed to a 0-2 loss to Villa over the weekend ion England. Poor him.

Jubilo Iwata striker Ryoichi Maeda was also invited for the game in Holland, Japan coach Takeshi Okada said on Sunday.

The Asians will play the Black Stars in Utrecht on September 9 as part of their preparations for next year’s World Cup in South Africa.

Morimoto, who moved to the Italian side in 2006 after three seasons with J-League side Tokyo Verdy, has scored nine goals in 42 Serie A games.

He also netted in the season-opener last weekend against Sampdoria. Maeda, who has scored 12 goals in the J-League this season, replaced Yoshito Okubo after the Vissel Kobe forward withdrew with a back problem.

It will be the first time Maeda has joined the national team since the East Asian Championships in February last year.

“I was surprised by the sudden call-up, but I’ll do my best to play my 100 percent. I’ll do my best to take the chances on the pitch,” Maeda said in a statement issued by Iwata.

Espanyol midfielder Shunsuke Nakamura, Junichi Inamoto of Rennes, Makoto Hasebe of Wolfsburg and the in-form Keisuke Honda of Dutch side Venlo will join Morimoto from European clubs.

First-choice goalkeeper Seigo Narazaki will miss the Dutch tour after fracturing a finger during a J-League match last week.

He needs 10 weeks to fully recover.

Ghana delivered the win before the end of the first half but still pressed for more goals in the second. Despite that the Chipolopolo increased pressure on the Stars in the latter stages especially after Michael Essien made way for Stephen Appiah.

It must be said that the Swiss-based Samuel Inkoom did very very well in the game, not least by securing a penalty which Junior Agogo converted well. Those who had been to the Stars earlier training session said it was a replica of what he learned at the time.

The win was a redemptive gesture for both Agogo and another troubled man – Sulley Muntar. Sulley has not been in the green zone of fans especially after his mother said her son was indispensable.

Speaking of Inkoom, the injury to some players in the team and others’ inability to secure UK visas meant he played in midfield for the first time ever in his career.

He played like he’d been there all these years and I was impressed.

So the goals came from Sulley Muntari, Stoppilo Sunzo (own goal), Junior Agogo and Haminu Dramani. Stoppilo Sunzo scored Zambia’s only goal as well.

Says coach Rajevac: “We needed to keep winning, so it was important that we did that. Now we will go into the next game with our confidence really high.

“The players who turned up showed just why Ghana is such a good team because even without many regulars, it was a good performance.”

The Black Stars’ next World Cup Qualifier is against Sudan at home on 6 September.

Starting team: George Owu/William Amamoo, John Paintsil, Harrison Afful, Eric Addo, Francis Dickoh, Anthony Annan/David Telfer, Michael Essien/Gladson Awako, Samuel Inkoom, Haminu Draman/Stephen Appiah, Sulley Muntari/Chris Dickson, Junior Agogo/Kwame Quansah.

Subs: William Amamoo, Stephen Appiah, Gladson Awako, David Telfer, Chris Dickson, Kwame Quansah

Eric Bekoe hasn’t played in national colours for one whole year and Stephen Appiah, due to his clubless issues, has also not been around since last featuring for Ghana against Benin in Kumasi.

Samuel Inkoom has been named in the side but with the Black Satellites on duty in Switzerland ahead of the World Youth Championships in Egypt, it is unlikely he will make the journey to England too.

Appiah is also back after he opted out of Ghana’s last 2 games because he said he had ‘family issues.’ I’ve stated earleir that I think that decision was wrong, to be honest.

Goalkeepers: Richard Kingston (Wigan Athletic, England), George Owu (Al Masry, Egypt)

Strikers: Asamoah Gyan (Rennes, France), Mathew Amoah (NAC Breda, Holland), Prince Tagoe (Hoffeinham, Germany) and Eric Bekoe (Egypt)

They’ll use it to oil their wheels after they’ve been dormant for so long.

The whole thing is a five-team, four-day tournament that’ll end on the 25th of this month.

The team are playing at the same venues in September for the World Youth Cup. They start with Nigeria in their opening game. Egypt will play Guatemala in the opener.

Then tomorrow, Ghana play Guatemala before they take on Egypt on Friday.

But what use is a tournament if the players who would play the world cup would not bew there, I ask you. Read Ransford Osei, Sadick Adams, Daniel Opare and others. The team’s preps have been poor, admittedly with a proposed tour of South Africa cancelled, a five-match tour of Venezuela following the same route and the last-minute termination of that anticipated two-match trip to South Korea also going kaput.

Said John Obuh, coach of Nigeria’s team: “It will be a good exercise to toughen the boys as they will play against more experienced players and outside their comfort zone,”.

The Nigerians have arrived in Accra.

480 games have come and gone, now we have a winner:

Hearts of Oak.

They beat Sporting Mirren 2-0 at the Ohene Djan stadium to make it. Mirre, sadly, have gone the other way and would be relegated.

That notwithstanding coach Emmanuel Afranie takes solace in building a formidable squad.
“Mirren is the most exciting side in the Premier League and it is a shame they have been relegated,” Afranie said.

“Inexperience caused us all this while but am happy that I have been able to build a team capable of doing many things in the future.

“I have a good team now and the future is very bright if the boys are kept. I am very sure they will come after one year. ”

About his reputation as a relegation specialist: “If there are no materials there is nothing a coach can do,”

“We just did not have the experience to compete at this level.”

But his captain Frank Boateng disagreed, claiming many of the players have played in the Ghana Premier League in the past.

Mirren is the latest club managed by the Metro TV group to be relegated after Zaytuna went down 12 months after they had been taken over by the media group.

Second place went to Kotoko, who drew 2-2 with King Faisal at home. They’ll settle for a continental spot.

Mirren were joined in the relegation places by All Blacks and Tema Youth. Tema Youth are swearing blood and thunder to fight the decision that shed them off what they feel is 6 hard earned points.

Said CEO Winfred Palmer: “If this is the way the fate of teams are decided in Ghana football fans will not turn up for matches

“For the sake of those fans and our teeming supporters we must go all out to ensure that the right thing is done.

“We are not ruling out any method including legal channels to seek redress.”

Tema Youth’s fate was decided after they were ducked six points and six goals by the Disciplinary Committee from their accumulated tally.

The Disciplinary Committee’s decision is as result of two cases brought against the Tema side by Berekum Arsenals and Eleven Wise over the eligibility of player, Emmanuel Clottey.